Hi and welcome to the Wonderful, flat world of Trainz!
There are 6 Versions of Trainz. 3 are Discontinued but still supported.
Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 Perks:
Content Manager Plus (CMP) is the program that manages and organizes all of your assets/content. To download new stuff through CMP is as easy as 1-2-3-4 in TRS2006 (Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006) and Classics (mentioned below).
1. Do a search
2. Select what you are looking for
3. Move it into the download helper panel
4. Click start!
Download helper will do everything automatically (Download, Install and organize) and even flag faulty content so you can fix it.
CMP only automatically searches the Auran Download Station and does not search private pages.
Trainz Classics perks:
Trainz Classics is the newest version of Trainz and is being released in editions. Editions 1 & 2 have been bundled and is called Railways in the UK, Railwayz in the USA and Classics everywhere else. Trainz Railwayz includes TRS2006. Edition 3 is due for release soon (next month soon)
It features CMP but the content level has been cut down to make the program smaller and to run more efficiently.
Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 perks:
TRS2004 is the oldest version of Trainz available on its own. It is also the version that there is the most content for but all of this content is available for newer versions. TRS2004 does not feature CMP, but there is a program called Trainzobjectz that can be downloaded from the downloads page of the TRS2004 web site.
It works in a similar way as CMP, but is more stable and more limited. You also have to manually search for your content which is also easy.
Below is a guide to some abbreviations used on the forums.
Guide:
Guide to Guide: Forum name here {nickname(s) = Full name and/or description
No Post on Trainz Forum {MSTS = Microsoft Train Simulator.
No Post on Trainz Forum {MSTSX = Microsoft Train Simulator X. Un-Released. Vista Only.
No Post on Trainz Forum {KTS = Kuju Train Simulator. Apparently very hard to use and highly bugged competitor.
Post Classics forum {TC, Classics = Trainz Classics Editions 1, 2 and 3 when it is released
Post Original {TVR = Re-Release of SP3. Known as "Trainz Virtual Railroad"
Post TRS2006 {TRS06, TRS2006, 2006 = Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006
Post TRS2004 {TRS04, TRS2004, 2004 = Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004
No Post place on Trainz Forum {Driver = Cheap cut-down version of TRS06 called Trainz Driver
Post Ultimate {UTC, Ultimate = The Ultimate Trainz Collection
Post Original {SP3, Original = The first good one. The one that everyone seems to only have the demo of. Also known as "Trainz Model Railroad Simulator"
Post Original {SP1, Pre SP3 = Trainz (first) retail.
TC is the newest and is compatible (in a fashion) to all previous content except Pre SP3 content.